Monday, June 01, 2015

A news
story, explaining "Why Your Dog Can Get Vaccinated Against Lyme
Disease and You Can't", correctly attributes the cause to "societal
and cultural reasons, not scientific reasons":

Introduced
in 1998, the vaccine sold well at first. But then opponents spoke out:
self-described "vaccine victims" -- perhaps similar to people today who
claim the MMR vaccine causes autism. Back then, they said that the
Lyme vaccine gave them arthritis.

"And this sort of got
into popular lore," [Vaccinologist Gregory] Poland recalls. "It got on
the Internet. There were a number of East Coast lawyers who started
putting together class-action lawsuits. There were anti-vaccine
advocacy groups that were formed."

And there were threats
against the scientists who had worked to help protect people against
the disease. Poland had to hide where he lived. [Physician Allen]
Steere got a security detail.

The clinical data did not
back up any of this. The trials had not shown such side effects. The
Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control
looked into the claims, and then continued to recommended that people
exposed to tick-infested areas get the vaccine.

But it was
too late. Sales had plummeted. Four years after offering people
immunity against Lyme, SmithKline Beecham stopped making the
vaccine. The second vaccine-maker, Pasteur Mérieux Connaught, saw what
had happened and never put out its own product. [bold added, other
format edits]

In a fully free society, an individual who
wanted to avail himself of a vaccine against a disease known
to cause
pain, memory impairment, and other neurological problems, could do
so, based on his own judgement and at his own risk.

By
contrast, we have a situation where scientists and drug producers live
under direct and indirect threats to life, limb, and property. The
obvious need for tort reform and the curtailment of both governmental
abuse and dereliction stem from a regressive culture. This culture is contemptuous of
evidence and unashamed of the initiation of
force against others, be it motivated by parasitism or
fear. That lack of shame comes in part from better men saying nothing.

The belief that government can protect us from
reality (such as by holding manufacturers liable beyond reasonable
limits) or ourselves (such as by pretending to relieve us of all risk) is
unleashing the worst among us, and is, among other things, subjecting us to plagues like Lyme
disease.